Imprinted tape for combined functional and decorative purposes

ABSTRACT

In order to spat an athletic performer&#39;s shoes to reinforce the foot and the ankle, an elongated tape formed of a flexible base is coated on one side with a pressure-sensitive adhesive and imprinted on the other side with repetitive versions of a team or sponsor&#39;s trademark, logo, or the like in colors associated with the team or sponsor. The tape may be used by wrapping the shoes and ankles in a manner known as spatting to reinforce the shoes and display the imprinted design.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/586,175 filed Aug. 15, 2012, which claims priority of U.S.Provisional Application 61/603,640 filed Feb. 27, 2012, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to adhesive tape imprinted with company logos,team colors, and the like for use in spatting athletic shoes and relatedpurposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Spatting is a process of taping over cleats worn by football players toprovide more foot and ankle support than is provided by the generallysoft sided athletic shoes. The tape is typically applied over the shoeand around the feet and ankles of a player after the player dons thecleats and usually extends around the bottom of the shoe between thefootball cleats. By spatting over the cleats they are able tosubstantially minimize the possibility of their ankles rolling which canresult in a sprain.

Many professional football players are under contract to wear aparticular brand of shoes during games for publicity purposes. Spattingover the shoes may obscure the company logos on the shoes and alsochange the shoe appearance to minimize spectator recognition of the shoesource. The brand owners therefore discourage or prohibit players undercontract from wearing spatted cleats.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is accordingly directed toward unique forms oftape which will resolve this conflict between the players' desire tospat their shoes and the brand owners' desire to obtain publicity by theuse of their shoes in football games without the identifyingcharacteristics of the shoe being hidden by spatting tape.

Broadly, the present invention is directed toward tapes which areimprinted or otherwise marked with a manufacturer's logo or relatedsponsor-identifying designs and colors. These logos and related designscan be imprinted on a roll of tape so that the design appears on anumber of locations on the shoe after it is spatted using the tape ofthe present invention. The same tape could also be used to tape thewrists of the players as well as for a variety of related purposes.

Tape formed in accordance with the present invention can assume avariety of designs. Conventionally players have used black tape forspatting purposes and accordingly black adhesive tape with the shoebrand logo appearing repeatedly on the tape would be one form of thepresent invention. Alternatively, the tape could be imprinted with thelogo of the players' team, its sponsors, and similar promotionalmaterial.

The tape could have a background color based on the team's predominantcolor, usually the color of the uniforms and the like, or a colorassociated with the brand owner. The tape could also be tied in withother promotions such as during breast cancer awareness month, byimprinting pink tape with the shoe brand logo, the team's logo, itssponsors, and the like on the tape in a contrasting color.

The tape could be transparent with the company logo and other relatedinformation imprinted thereon so that the underlying logos on the shoecould be seen through the tape.

The tape material could range from a paper base to a fabric base or aplastic base, as long as the tape is sufficiently flexible and hassufficient tensile strength to create the spatting and the like.

The imprinting on the tape can be of any desired color as long as itprovides a reasonable contrast with the background. Tapes could also beprovided with logos of sponsors such as Gatorade, Pepsi, etc. or graphicmaterial such as drawings or photos.

The tape used in connection with the present invention may have the samecompositions and pressure-sensitive adhesives on one side, as well asthe same dimension, as tapes presently used for spatting. They may varyfrom one inch to up to about three inches in width. The base materialsmay be paper compositions, fabric compositions, or plastic compositions.When fabric compositions are used, the logos or the like may be woveninto the base fabric. Alternatively, they may be imprinted onto the tapebase on the non-adhesive side.

The process of spatting shoes may involve taping prior to insertion inthe athletic shoes, taping after the insertion of the foot into theathletic shoes, or combinations of both.

In either form of taping it is important to tape the ankles to minimizethe possibility of ankle rollover injuries which can result in sprainsputting the athletes out of action for some period of time. Onepreferred form of taping would be to tape the ankles with several turnsaround the arch of the foot, then insert the foot into a shoe and tapethe outside of the shoe with the arch support extending into severalturns around the ankle. However, any form of taping can be used with thepresent invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objectives, advantages, and applications of the present inventionwill be made clear by the following detailed description of preferredembodiments of the invention. The description makes reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a football shoe incorporating cleats(“cleats”) being spatted with adhesive tape from a roll incorporating anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a shoe without cleats being similarlyspatted by an inventive form of adhesive tape in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of spatting applied to a shoe and theadjacent ankle employing tape formed in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of spatting tape formed in accordance withthe present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of a football cleat with spatting formed usingtape in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, in FIG. 1 a roll 10 of tape 12, formed inaccordance with the present invention, is being used to spat a cleat 14.The cleat 14, or football shoe, comprises a conventional upper 16 havingprojecting cleats 18 on its bottom surface.

The tape 12 is illustrated as being imprinted on its outer surface witha series of stars. The underside, or the opposed surface, is coated witha pressure-sensitive adhesive to secure the tape to the shoe 14 andportions of the ankle 20 of the wearer. The tape 12 may be imprinted onits upper side with any of a variety of designs, but preferably the logoof a sponsor or of a shoe manufacturer who contracts with a professionalfootball player who wears the shoes. The imprinted legend may be theentity's logo, trademark, motto, or simply the entity's name. Theimprinting 22, shown to be a star in FIG. 1, is preferably imprinted onthe tape base material which may be any flexible material such as wovenfabric, flexible plastic sheeting, or the like. The marking, such as thestar 22, and the underlying material may be imprinted in contrastingcolors, preferably associated with the sponsor, licensor, or the like.

Alternatively, the designs, such as the star 22, might be imprinted ontransparent tape, allowing portions of the underlying shoe to berendered visible. As seen in FIG. 1, the spatting, as is conventional,surrounds the midsection of the shoe and extends across the underside ofthe shoe. As illustrated in FIG. 3, it further surrounds the ankle ofthe wearer to provide reinforcing against stresses imposed on the shoeduring a sporting activity, in particular preventing sprained ankles.FIG. 2 illustrates how the tape is brought up from the sectionsurrounding the midsection of the shoe and around the ankle, and FIG. 3illustrates the completed spatting.

FIG. 5 illustrates the underside of a shoe containing cleats 18 andillustrates the manner in which the taping extends between the cleats,leaving the cleats to operate in a conventional manner.

Use of the adhesive tape of the present invention to spat a cleat orother athletic shoe thus accommodates the need of a player to reinforcethe shoe and foot against the stresses imposed in athletic training andparticipation in sport events, while providing prominent display of asponsor's name, logo, motto, or the like.

Having thus disclosed my invention, I claim:
 1. The method of spattingsoft sided athletic shoes having cleats on their bottoms to reinforce awearer's feet and ankles against injury and simultaneously promote asponsor of the wearer comprising: wrapping the shoes, while being worn,with flexible tape having adhesive on one side and a design related tothe sponsor imprinted repeatedly along the length of the tape on theopposite side, the wrapped tape extending on the bottoms of the shoes,between the cleats, around the soft sides, and around the ankles of thewearers, with the imprinted sides exposed.